Tablet PCs in India

Tablet PC  market in India at present is very small with sales varying from around 1,00,000 to 2,50,000. However these numbers (sales of tablet PC) are also not 100% correct . Last few months there has been an upsurge in buying of tablets primarily because of blackberry reducing its prices of its playbook model. The market share of playbook in Indian market is 20%( Samsung  galaxy being the market leader with 55% share). 

Apple I-pad did not have a good start in India as its share in a low volume Indian market is only 6%.Apple earlier neglected india and there little advertising in india is also only on their i-phones and Macbooks. Apple CEO tim cook recently said that they would love to have india as their one of the good markets but the distribution structure in india is not very good for premium products. 

Tablets itself create confusion in the minds of consumer as people are not sure whether tablets can replace their smartphones or laptops  or both or neither of them. Reliance launched an advt campaign recently (with ranvijay n anushka onboard) showing multitasking benefits of a 3G tablet, showing smartphone as nothing but an instrument to be used as a torch, urging Indian consumers to buy tablets instead of smartphones. Micromax also launched a funbook tablet and funbook pro and the company also claims that they have sold 1,30,000 tablets in last 4 months.

 Tablets at present would appeal to only those people who already have a laptop and smartphone both and want to try a new product( mainly the high income group). They were also the earlier buyers of smartphones when smartphones were launched in indian market in 2004-2005.  Both micromax and reliance does not have the brand equity to satisfy the needs of high income group. 

Tablets also suffer from the infrastructure problems in telecom industry in india as tablets are a device which are to be used  on the move but high speed internet is not available in india. India ( unlike developed countries) does not have wifi hotspots at public places nor india has full fledged 3g network, so the purpose of buying tablets fails here. The sales of tablets in india will be exciting to watch in next few years as many experts claim that there sales will be close to a million in next few years, which segment tablets will be sold highest will also be in question as Indian population would be going for mid range tablets offered by Indian companies or high range tablets offered by Samsung or apple( also including Microsoft surface tablet.)??